Clefairy Line/RBY
Clefairy is a very rare encounter in Mt. Moon, with a 1% encounter rate on the upper floors and a 6% encounter rate on the lower floors. It can also be bought for 500 coins at the Celadon Game Corner in Red and for 750 coins at the Celadon Game Corner in Blue. In Yellow, it can be found on B2F of Mt. Moon with 100% certainty if the Repel Trick is used and a Level 12 Pokémon is leading your party. Moon Stones are available in Route 2, Mt. Moon, the Rocket Hideout and the Pokémon Mansion. Ah, Gen 1 Clefairy. Pretty potent for something that resembles a flying pig. Clefairy’s versatile stats allow it to fill a variety of roles, such as physical attacker, special attacker, and (in a pinch) tank. Like most Normal-types, Clefairy can learn a wide variety of moves. Unlike some Normal-types, Clefable’s attacking stats actually allow it to use its Special movepool. Unfortunately, Clefairy’s rarity prevents it from being seen in most Nuzlockes. Most gift-Pokémon rules force you to get only one Pokémon from Celadon, making you have to choose between buying Clefairy (or another Pokémon) at the Game Corner and obtaining the versatile and highly-rated Eevee. (This assumes you miss the extremely rare Mt. Moon catch - a reasonable assumption.) Given the choice between adding a potent Water-type, Electric-type, or Fire-type to their arsenal and getting yet another Normal-type, typically players will choose the former. Clefairy’s main disadvantage in battle is its low speed: it almost always ends up taking a hit before retaliating. Its fully-evolved form also isn’t as bulky as conventional tanks, with 95 HP/73 Defense/85 Special. Luckily, its bulk is still sufficient to allow it to take lots of hits and fight back hard, and techniques such as Minimize and Defense Curl allow it to enhance its natural durability to impressive levels. Overall, the Clefairy line is a great replacement for your Normal-Type “derp” with its all-around stats and diverse movepool. Important Matchups - Yellow = * Rival (Cerulean City): If you’re lucky enough to have Clefairy by this point, make sure to teach it Mega Punch on your way out of Mt. Moon. It will punch holes through Blue’s team as Clefairy shrugs off his team’s attacks. In fact, if you want, you can even have a fully-evolved Clefable by now, since Clefairy really doesn’t get any good moves by level-up, and Clefable’s stats absolutely wreck this portion of the game (especially in tandem with STAB Mega Punch). * Gym #2 - Misty (Cerulean City, Water-type): You may have evolved Clefairy into Clefable by now. If so, Clefable can easily tank BubbleBeam and fight back strong with Mega Punch. If you have no Ivysaur/Bellsprout/Oddish, Clefable is a great choice for this Gym Battle. If not, be far more careful - STAB BubbleBeam packs a punch. * Rival (S.S. Anne): Clefable still has nothing to fear due to its great bulk for this point in the game. You can pummel his team with Mega Punch while barely feeling the attacks launched at Clefable. Clefairy can also contribute, though be wary of the stronger Pokémon and Hyper Fang. (Notably, RBY's S.S. Anne contains the the excellent Body Slam TM, which you may prefer to Mega Punch.) * Gym #3 - Lt. Surge (Vermilion City, Electric-type): Clefairy’s Special Defense stat will allow it to withstand a couple Electric attacks, but you are better off using Diglett. Raichu's Thunderbolt is very strong. * Rival (Pokémon Tower): Continue as normal with Mega Punch or a similarly strong move. There are no real threats to Clefable's health here. * Giovanni (Rocket Hideout, Ground-type): If you lack a Water-type, teach Clefable BubbleBeam and proceed to rampage through his team. Kangaskhan presents a problem with its physical bulk, but two can play at that game - answer with Mega Punch. Just be careful if your HP gets low. * Gym #4 - Erika (Celadon City, Grass-type): Grab Ice Beam from the roof of the Department Store and freeze these vegetables. * Gym #5 - Koga (Fuchsia City, Poison-type): Go to Saffron, grab the Psychic TM from Mr. Psychic, and sweep. By this point, if you still have Mega Punch and you want to retain Normal STAB, Strength has the same base power and has 100% accuracy. * Fighting Dojo (Saffron City, Fighting-type): Risky players may want to attempt a Psychic sweep, but it’s generally a poor idea to send out a pure Normal-type against a Fighting gym. If you really want to, though... * Rival (Silph Co.): Thunderbolt Cloyster or Vaporeon, dispatch Ninetales and Exeggcute with the move of your choice, go BubbleBeam or Body Slam against Flareon, be a bit more careful when you fight Magneton or Jolteon (if you do) but that's it, Normal STAB works well here too. Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/STAB pretty much destroys anything your rival can throw at you, so use the appropriate TMs on Clefable if it's your main special attacker. * Giovanni (Silph Co., Ground-type): Use Psychic against the Nidoran lines and strong Special attacks against the rest. Remember that Ground-types are immune to Thunderbolt. * Gym #6 - Sabrina (Saffron City, Psychic-type): Alakazam is a demonic crit-spammer, and Abra can lower your accuracy with Flash and that's pretty much it. Advice for this fight: buy X items and set up, then sweep. You may want to either boost Attack or Special as well as having an X Accuracy, which will make your moves never miss regardless of Flash usage. * Gym #7 - Blaine (Cinnabar Island, Fire-type): Use BubbleBeam if you still have it. Otherwise, consider letting Clefable sit out the battle - you have a Surfer. Use it. * Gym #8 - Giovanni (Viridian City, Ground-type): BubbleBeam if you still have it, though Psychic is preferred against the Nidoran line. Beware Dugtrio, which will outspeed and deal massive damage with Earthquake before dying; similarly, Persian always crits Slash. Watch out. * Rival (Route 22, pre-Elite Four): Thunderbolt the Water-types. Ice Beam the Grass-types. Kadabra is possible with strong physical attacks, but beware Psychic, especially since this is Gen 1. Chances are, you can tank at least two non-crit Psychics, but be careful of critical hits, as well as Special Defense drops caused by Psychic. Handle the unevolved Pokémon with the move of your choice. Be careful of the Eeveelutions - they’re carrying powerful STAB moves now, but Clefable should still manage against them. * Elite Four Lorelei (Indigo Plateau, Ice-type): ThunderboltThunderboltThunderboltThunderbolt. Oh, and hit Jynx with strong Normal STAB. Lapras probably isn’t going down in one hit, but can’t do too much back to you, as Clefable is quite a capable tank. * Elite Four Bruno (Indigo Plateau, Fighting-type): Possible, but you’re playing with your Clefable’s life here. If you must, use his Onixes as time to boost up with X Speeds (and X Specials, if you want to be cautious). You NEED to OHKO the Fighting-types to pull this off. * Elite Four Agatha (Indigo Plateau, Poison-type): PsychicPsychicPsychicPsychicPsychic next? (You may wish to bring Elixirs or Ethers to the League if you’re relying on Clefable. It’s an excellent Pokémon, but only has so much PP.) * Elite Four Lance (Indigo Plateau, Dragon-type): ThunderboltIceBeamIceBeamIceBeamIceBeam next? (BoltBeam always wins!) * Champion Rival (Indigo Plateau): Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Psychic will serve you VERY well in this battle. As with Bruno, however, you may want to use his weak first Pokémon to boost up with X Speeds and X Specials - he has no Fighting-type attacks on his team, but his Pokémon’s STAB moves hit exceptionally hard. * Post-Game: Mewtwo is really, really strong. Clefable might take a Psychic but should be very careful in this fight. }} Moves You should start off with the moves Pound and Growl, with Sing coming at 13. Pound is a mediocre STAB move, but it will do at first. Growl can be useful on some occasions, as Clefairy’s physical bulk could use some help. Sing is incredibly useful if it hits, but 55% accuracy makes it as much a hindrance as a help. If you miss more than two in a row, that’s probably a sign that you should stop trying and just get on with trying to KO the opponent. DoubleSlap comes in at Level 18, but it’s rather unreliable - stick with Pound. Minimize, at Level 24, is a pleasantly evil move, but relying on hax in a Nuzlocke is a good way to get your Pokémon killed. If you use it at all, use it at the start of a battle in which you intend to have Clefairy/Clefable sweep all Pokémon, so that you’ll get the most mileage out of the raised evasion chance. Metronome, best known for getting Pokémon killed through pulling Explosions, comes at Level 31. Level 39 brings Defense Curl, which is decidedly meh and really shouldn't come this late. (What were the developers thinking with Gen 1?) Level 41 FINALLY brings Light Screen, which is handy for protecting Clefairy against physical attackers... but at this point, shouldn't you have evolved? Far more important, however, is Clefable’s TM movepool. In Gen 1, Hyper Beam both adds extra power and will not take a recharge turn if the enemy is knocked out, enabling a sweep. However, its low PP and Clefable's difficulty OHKOing with Attack alone will probably cause you to prefer Strength or Body Slam instead. Mega Punch is a good option for the early game, though Strength outclasses it later and Body Slam is an excellent replacement as early as S.S. Anne. Double-Edge is a potent attacking option, but Clefable will not appreciate the recoil. As for Special moves, Thunderbolt gives Clefable the ability to take out Water-types and Flying-types, Ice Beam defeats Grass-types and Lance’s infamous Dragons, and Psychic mows through Fighting-types and the many Poison-types of Kanto. BubbleBeam is a good move for the early game, when few Specially-based TMs are available, but should be replaced later on. (For the very early game, Water Gun will do in a pinch.) Reflect and Light Screen are options for a defensive Clefable, but Light Screen comes so late that you're better off just evolving instead. Recommended moveset: Strength / Body Slam, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Psychic Other Clefairy's stats Clefable's stats * At what point in the game should I be evolved? You can potentially evolve it the moment you get it. If you enjoy hax, you may wish to hold off on evolving until Level 24, when it gets Minimize. Other than that, its movepool is mostly TM-based, so there’s no benefit in delaying. * How good is the Clefairy line in a Nuzlocke? Assuming you can get it (or choose it over Eevee), it's very good. It requires heavy TM investment to reach its full potential, but its versatility then allows it to take on most foes with aplomb. With skill (or aid from X Items), it can take out the Elite Four on its own! * Weaknesses: Fighting * Resistances: None * Immunities: Ghost * Neutralities: Bug, Dragon, Electric, Fire, Flying, Ghost, Ground, Ice, Normal, Poison, Psychic, Rock, Water Category:Red/Blue/Yellow Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses